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Observations of objects of type "Atmospheric":

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Tue May 1 01:15:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1648

Last night after walking the beach, my friend Steve Borer and I observed a genuine blue moon. For five minutes the moon was actually tinted blue as we gawked at it. It then returned to its white color. My other friend Mike Dzubaty had just left for home after the three of us walked and he missed it. To figure out what caused a five minute blue moon, I rushed home to check the weather satellite images. The cause of the five minute blue moon was a thin stripe of high thin clouds than crossed the moon's face. These clouds were so faint we did not notice they were over the moon's face. Now I know what it's like to see a blue moon.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: none   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Feb 25 16:00:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1626

On Sunday, my friends Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer and I noticed a colorful halo around the sun as we set out for a trip to the northwest hills of Connecticut. When we reached there the halo around the sun was as bright and colorful as ever. The colors where orange, yellow and blue. The halo was caused by high clouds in advance of a minor snowstorm that hit that night.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Jan 5 01:00:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1607

Last evening, my friends, Steve Borer, Mike Dzubaty and I were observing the full moon through high thin clouds while we were walking the beach. At first we were able to see the ring around the moon but then we noticed that on either side of the moon were mock moons or moon dogs as they are sometimes called. Unlike sundogs, which have a lot of color to them, these moondogs were essesially colorless. This was the first time I was able to see moondogs.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Dec 15 01:30:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1599

A few posts back I said if sunspot 930 did not send a CME to earth resulting in auroras, I would then eat my telescope. Well I got lucky. The aurora arrived full force. The red part of the aurora actually extended well to our south. After about 30 minutes, the red part dissapated. My brother Anthony and I from our location and my friend, Joe Cseh from his location, turned to the northwest. Here the color of the aurora was orangy yellow and this part was very bright. This part of the aurora was still going strong when we went in for the night.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Thu Apr 13 22:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1524

While this observation is more meteorlogical than astronomical, I still want to write about it because I think it is a very interesting sky observation. While I was at home, I was watching a weather broadcast that showed a big thunderstorm well to my north that was heading in an ESE direction. On the radar, the storm had a hook echo attached to it which indicated that the storm may have a tornado involved. With this in mind, I rushed to the beach to join my friend Dave Maltese to observe the storm which was well to our east. The thunderstorm itself was a huge billowing storm that had a rather large funnel cloud attatched to it. We watched the funnel cloud for about half an hour when it finally spit out a small wriggly rope tornado. The rope tornado lasted about two or three minutes in which it would get stronger and then weaker before the whole funnel cloud finally dissapated. Also, during the 30 minutes the funnel cloud lasted, we were seeing bolts of lightning shooting down towards the ground. These bolts of lightning were right next to the funnel cloud. Now its back to astronomical observations.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Sat Nov 5 20:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1393

This afternoon, my friends, Steve Borer, Mike Dzubaty, Mike's son Mike and I were leaving the Yale football game when we observed the brightest mock sun any of us have ever seen. The oranges, reds and yellows were very bright and there was a tinge of blue also. It was quite a sight.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: Milford, Connecticut, United States
Time: Sat May 28 00:15:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1235

This evening, after a thunderstorm, I observed a completely orange rainbow. I turned to the west and I saw a very orange sun about to set. I guess the rainbow was orange because the very low in the horizon sun was very orange. Seeing an orange rainbow was a first for me.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Mar 27 01:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1191

This evening, My friends, Mike, his son Mike, Steve and I saw a pillar of light going up from a cloud bank. We realized the moon was behind the the cloud bank and the pillar of light was a moon pillar. I have seen sun pillars before but this was the first time I ever saw a moon pillar. When the moon emerged from the cloud, the moon pillar disappeared, much like the lasagna, ham and pork will disappear into my belly on Easter Sunday.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Sat Jan 29 21:15:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1147

Today, My friends, Joe Cseh, Mike Dzubaty and I observed to multi colored sundogs on either side of the sun. Orange was the dominant color but the the colors of the rainbow were also in the sundog. These were among the brightest sundogs I have ever seen.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Thu Jan 20 01:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1144

Last night, during a light snowfall, snowflakes had a particular glitter in them which reminded me of diamond dust falling. Our local TV station recieved calls and emails regarding these strange glittery snowflakes. The local TV weatherman explained that these type of snowflakes occur when the temperature in both the upper and lower atmospheres reach a certain temperature. Even when the snow was on the ground, there were still many snowfkakes with that diamond like sparkle to them. This was definately one of my most interesting near sky astronomical experiances.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Nov 28 03:00:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 1117

Last night as the nearly full moon was peaking through the clouds, a bright blue corona formed around the moon. The blue corona extended out to half a degree all around the moon. There was no bluish tinge on the moon itself. It was a beautiful sight.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Nov 8 00:00:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 1088

This evening, I was able to observe a fairly nice aurora for about 45 minutes. The aurora had both red and green colors to it. The reds ranged from the NNW to the NE part of the sky. The red colors never got higher than 40 degrees up in the sky. However, one green beam almost came over the top of my head. My arch enemies, the clouds, then rolled in and that ended my observation of the northern lights.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric, est. to be in Bootes)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Sep 1 01:00:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 1058

Last night, my friends and dozens of other people witnessed a very odd looking cloud drifting across the sky. It turns out the cloud was caused by the release of fuel by an Atlas Centaur rocket that was putting a satelite into orbit, according to www.spaceweather.com. The cloud was sort of shaped like the dumbbell nebula, narrower in the middle and wider at the ends. We were able to observe it for almost half an hour before it disapated.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Tue Aug 17 17:00:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 1052

This afternoon, as my brother and I were walking along the southern Connecticut beach we saw a very interesting mirage. As we looked out over Long Island Sound, we saw Long Island itself seemingly floating in the air. The bottom of long Island looked like it wasn't touching the water. After about a half an hour, Long Island once again " settled " into the water. This was only the second time I have seen this type of mirage.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Jul 23 01:15:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 1036

On Wednesday evening, my friends and I observed an aurora for about 45 minutes. It was mostly a red and or pink aurora. The aurora undulated from the northwestern sky to the northeastern sky. It was also in both sections of the sky for a short while. We were not able to see any green areas.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Sat Feb 8 22:30:00 2003 UT   Obs. no.: 777

Another near sky phenomenon is something called the Belt of Venus. As the sun sets in the west, our attention should be to look at the eastern sky. As the sun continues to sink well below the horizon just after sunset, the dark sky starts to rise higher in the east. But just above the rising dark sky, is a pink area which is refered to as the Belt of Venus. This is easy to see on any clear evening, just after sunset. Just remember, it is always in the east, opposite from were the sun has set in the west.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Thu Feb 6 20:00:00 2003 UT   Obs. no.: 776

Today, cirrus clouds were approaching as a snow storm headed our way. As the clouds filled the sky and the sun inched lower toward the horizon, two beautiful mock suns formed on either side of the sun. Both mock suns contained the colors of a rainbow and in fact they looked like short stubby rainbows. Near sky astronomy is an enjoyable addition to deep sky astronomy.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Fri Jan 17 12:40:00 2003 UT   Obs. no.: 766

This morning, while I was driving to work, I noticed a thick cloud bank to the east which was blocking my view of the morning sunrise. Instead, I was able to observe a beautiful yellow orange sun piller rising straight above the cloud deck. It stayed in view until the sun itself broke above the cloud deck. In eleven months, when I retire, these morning sun pillers will be hard for me to see, since I will be sleeping late seven days a week.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Mon Dec 16 23:15:00 2002 UT   Obs. no.: 734

Tonight, my friend Don Hartlin and I noticed that the moon had a beautiful blue corona around it because of cloud cover. Don quipped this must be the famous blue moon everyone talks about. Although the moon itself wasn't blue, seeing the blue corona around the moon was quite a site.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Tue Sep 24 03:30:00 2002 UT   Obs. no.: 687

Tonight, due to high clouds, the moon had a blue and yellow corona around it. The blue part of the corona extended about three tenths of a degree from the moons edge. A thinner yellow corona surrounded the blue part of the corona. It was quite a sight. Earlier, there was a 22.5 degree halo around the moon.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: none   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Sep 8 00:30:00 2002 UT   Obs. no.: 680

We were not finished viewing Comet Hoenig at the Conn. star party, when suddenly the sky erupted into a spectacular 30 min.northen lights show. The colors veried from pink to red to green ,blue and purple.On two occasions, several auroral beams of different colors were in the sky. The big highlight, was a bright green auroral curtain that shimmered in the sky for 3 to 5 min. This aurora really lit up our viewing field.

Atmospheric (Atmospheric)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Time: Wed Jun 19 23:15:00 2002 UT   Obs. no.: 652

After a brief shower, I saw a bright double rainbow. Its colors were purple, orange, yellow, green and pink. The whole sky below the ark of the rainbow took on a pinkish tinge. The area between the primary and secondary rainbow was very dark at first but then it brightened up. As is always the case, the colors of the secondary were in reverse order compared to the primary. The rainbow lasted about half an hour.

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